The Sickness
by orsumfenix
Summary: Excerpts from the writings of Leo Valdez, recovered in the recently found Bunker 9, shedding light on how the Great Sickness began, progressed and finished. Post Giant War, some Caleo.


**_This is likely going to get very depressing later on, but I'm going to try my best to keep going even if it's... not nice. _**

**_Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HOO, but I do own this fanfic so please review! _**

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><p><strong>Patient 1 – Piper McLean <strong>

_**Excerpt from the writings of Leo Valdez, recovered in the recently found Bunker 9, shedding light on how the Great Sickness began. **_

_My hand is shaking as I write this. I've gotta admit, I'm not quite sure what to say. One minute, we were just sitting there, chatting, and the next… _

Leo watches Piper takes a bite out of the cake, kaleidoscope eyes shutting as she moans in pure bliss.

"This," she announces, the sound muffled as she speaks with her mouth full. "Is gorgeous. You _have_ to try some." She finally swallows the piece and cocks her head, smiling at him, eyes glinting in the sunlight as he hair sparkles. She has crumbs smeared around her mouth, Leo notes amusedly. Something tells him Piper wouldn't care even if he told her.

"It's fine," he tells her flippantly, waving a hand greasy with machine-oil for a second before putting it back to rest on the grassy floor in the outside heat. "It's yours. I'll get Jace to make me some later." Piper smiles at him, taking another bite and putting the slice of cake back to rest on the napkin. He grins back, knowing he will go to Jason and demand that he does that.

Oddly enough, at the end of the war, _the_ Jason Grace, strong leader and warrior and one of the most powerful demigods to ever have been born found a new hobby to take up. And that hobby was… _cooking_.

At first, of course, Leo had relentlessly cracked jokes about it, finding it _hilarious_ that the almighty son of Jupiter would take up something so domestic and actually _enjoy_ it, until Jason pointed out that, not only does Leo cook tacos regularly, but he does so from his _tool-belt_, which is definitely not as cool as cooking it all by hand.

The jokes stopped after that.

The problem was, Leo could hardly continue make jokes about Jason's new hobby regardless, seeing as he'd actually _tasted _some of Jason's food (mainly cakes), leaving him to wonder if the Roman had somehow secretly inserted nectar or ambrosia into it because _damn_. _Damn_.

It is now no camp secret that Jason Grace makes the best cakes in either of the two camps and no one should say otherwise, else risking being frazzled by a lightning bolt by King of the Skies. And that includes Leo Valdez.

The son of Hephaestus is drawn out of his reminiscing by the sound of Piper breathing out harshly through her nose and leaning back to lie on the floor, top half her body still under the shade of the tree. She's finished her cake, Leo notes, and he kind of regrets not taking her up on the offer to share while he still had it.

"It's weird," Piper begins, and Leo's curls shift slightly as he looks over to her. She cracks her eyes open and squints at him, vision probably hazy from the sunlight that must be in her eyes. "Like, he's only been gone a day, but I already miss him, y'know?" She sighs, blowing a strand of hair away from her face and closing her eyes again. "I don't know _how_ I'm going to last _three weeks_."

"You'll be fine," Leo assures, knowing the words are undoubtedly true as he says them. Then almost as an afterthought, he adds, "who cares about Jason, anyway? I want his cake."

Piper laughs, and the sound is beautiful as it's carried away on the breeze.

"Still," she murmurs. "It's the first time we've been separated for long since, you know, the _war_, and…" She doesn't have to finish. Leo knows what she's implying. _She worries. We all do. How could we not, after everything we've done, after everything we've seen?_

"Well," he states, but doesn't get to finish because suddenly Piper's sitting up, back ramrod-straight, coughing into her hand. He frowns. "Wow, that sounds bad. You alright?"

The daughter of Aphrodite begins to nod, but the action seems to cause her either pain or dizziness because she winces and clutches her head, but soon it's back to being over her mouth again as the coughs get more violent and begin to rack her whole frame. Leo moves forward, concerned, but as soon as he lays an arm on Piper's hand he has to flinch away, because her hand is spasming – her whole _body _is spasming and _oh, god, what does he __**do**__? _

"Piper?" he asks, both tentive and hysterical, and Piper leans on him for support but she's shaking, oh god she's shaking and so much and she was _fine _a couple seconds ago and _what the hell just happened?_

"Piper!" he repeats, moving to hold onto her shoulders and he grips on tightly. His mind vaguely registers that his fingers are probably digging in pretty deeply and that's gotta _hurt_, but right now he's just so _afraid_ of what will happen if he _doesn't_ get her to stop and…

Her fingers finally wrench away from her mouth as the coughing stops slightly, but not completely, and her hands soon grip his own. Her grip is tight and his is firm. Her knuckles are white from the pressure, but he honestly doesn't blame her right now. He's scared, too.

"Leo?" she says softly, and he's never heard her voice so small, so weak. She sounds like a little child, scared after a nightmare, and Piper shouldn't sound like that, not now, not ever.

She coughs again, just lightly, but something bubbles to the surface and watches it in horror.

A trail of blood trails down her chin, straight out from her mouth.

…_she was choking up blood. _

_I can honestly say I've never been more scared in my life, and that's saying something, considering I've been up against Gaia and all that. But, you've gotta understand, my __**best friend**__ was coughing up blood, and I knew – I __**knew**_** – **_that there was nothing I could do about that. _

_But I damn well wasn't going to just sit there and take it. _

_I took Piper to the healing area, of course, though I'm sitting at her bedside right now and, I've gotta say, she wasn't looking much better. She looks frail and weak, and some part of me knows that I've still gotta call Jason… _

"Somebody help!" Leo shouts as he storms inside the healing area, arms full with Piper, being carried-bridal style as her body shakes with coughs and convulses so violent he can barely keep hold of her. He's held her like this before, of course, about to dump her in the lake or something of the like, but never before has he carried he _here_, terrified for her life.

The effect if immediate. The Apollo campers, as well as some demigods of different parents who just like to help, rush forwards and scoop Piper out of his arms, laying her down gently on the bed closest to him. Well, they _try _to be gentle – she's shaking so hard it surely isn't.

The coughs increased on the way there, back at the same intensity and force – if not more – than before. Leo's thoughts have been frantic, just as they are now, watching the healers trying to help but constantly being knocked away by Piper.

Leo considers suggesting tying her down to prevent damage to her, but just at that moment a splatter of blood bubbles to the surface of her lips, momentarily silencing the healers. Then it's kicked back into business and orders almost straight away, and Leo's gotta give them credit – they act fast where he would be useless.

An Apollo girl – Kayla, was it? – somehow manages to get Piper so that she's sitting up and won't choke on her own blood, and Will Solace helps to manoeuvre the daughter of Aphrodite is leaning forward. A bowl materialises out of seemingly nowhere for her to splat blood into, presumably grabbed by one of the healers, and suddenly there's so many of them that Leo can't see his best friend through the hustle around the bed.

"Leo," a gentle but firm voice says near his ear, and he looks over to see a grim-faced Austin from Apollo standing by him. The older demigod takes Leo by the crook of his elbow and tries to tug him away, but the fire-user stays firm, adamant about not leaving Piper alone. "Leo," Austin repeats, suddenly in his face, blocking his view of the bed entirely. Leo cranes to see, but Austin moves to stand in his way. "Leo, you can't help her here. You'll only be getting in the way."

As much as he hates to admit it, Leo knows it's true, and he lets himself be led outside the tent.

As soon as he gets outside, into the glaring heat, he collapses onto the floor and covers his face with his hands, breathing in deeply and raggedly, shaken to the core. When he finally pulls them away, he sees the dirt on them and knows that his face must be in a similar state right now, but he can't quite bring himself to care.

_Calypso's here, but she's asleep. She's exhausted. Since she works part-time in the infirmary, she got called in to help with Pipes. She's tried really hard, and I'm really grateful, and I know that I'll have to do something extra-nice for her later, once all this has blown over, but unfortunately I don't think that's happening anytime soon… _

"Leo," a voice says in front of him, pulling said demigod out of his reverie. He looks up to see his girlfriend, Calypso, leaning over him with worry etched into all of her features. Usually he'd be admiring her beauty, but he just can't focus on that right now. "Leo, what's going on?"

"Calypso," Leo croaks, and his voice sounds all _weird_ but he's just too caught up in everything that's happened right now. "Babe, what are you doing here, I…?"

Calypso shushes him, cutting him off by raising her hand and placing a warm palm on his cheek. Leo goes silent, but the torrent in his head does not. He's worried and scared and the only thing that's keeping him going is the fact that Piper's going to need him if – _when_ she gets a bit better.

"Calypso," a relieved voice breathes from the entrance of the tent, and Austin is standing there, looking sweaty and tired but trying for a smile nonetheless. He breathes out slowly, exhaling air that lifts his hair slightly. Normally Leo would find that funny. But not right now. "Thank god you're here. We really need your help right now."

Calypso's hand moves away from Leo's face as she straightens up, looking serious as a small frown mars her forehead.

"What happened?" she practically demands, all business-like. Austin begins explaining as the two go inside the tent, leaving Leo alone with his thoughts, fears and worries once more.

_Whatever it is, I can only hope that Piper will recover from it. And I pray to every god that it doesn't spread._

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><p><strong><em>Thanks for reading, and please review! <em>**


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